Wiltshire Road Race League #4

The rain held off for the 400 runners who lined up in Highworth for Race #4 of the Wiltshire Road Race League. A storming opening mile saw two time race winner Chris Illman of Cirencester AC and Simon Plummer of Salisbury A&RC break away from the chasing pack which included last year’s race winner Michael Towler of Avon Valley Runners along with Ewen Malloch of Team Bath and Simon Nott of Calne Running Club. Reaching the three mile mark in 14-minutes and 24-seconds Simon Plummer who is in tapering mode for next weekend’s London Marathon found himself in the clear and so eased back into the headwind and the final climb to the finish, to take victory in an impressive 25:43. Simon Nott managed to work his way through to second place achieving a new personal best time for the distance of 26:13 with Chris Illman holding on for third place in 26:29 and Ewen Malloch finishing fourth in 27:44 holding off Michael Towler by four seconds.

In the ladies race Wendy Nicholls of Cirencester AC successfully defended her Highworth title clocking 30:26 ahead of former race winner Kate Jacobs of Swindon Harriers in 31:15 and third placed Denise Grech of Calne SMaRTT in 32:56.

Finishing as fourth and fifth ladies respectively, Fiona Price and Diane Hier helped to ensure that Avon Valley Runners continued their perfect start to the League by taking maximum points back to West Wiltshire ahead of Wootton Bassett Hounds and Swindon Harriers. Avon Valley Runners now extend their lead to eight points over second placed Chippenham Harriers.

In Division Two a solid performance by Devizes Running Club sees them move ahead of Frome Running Club at the top of the table as do Calne Running Club.

The next event in the Newsquest International sponsored Wiltshire Road Race League is the Trowbridge 5K which takes place on Sunday 26th May.